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October 25, 2006

Much Worse than Union-Busting

Probably one of the greatest truths to dawn on me over the past few years has been that wealthy and powerful individuals have managed to convince good, conservative voters to bit-by-bit dismantle the support structure of the middle class and free up the unscrupulous from regulations meant to prevent them from trampling on the rest of us in their effort to gain wealth and power. I know that sounds radical to those who are still wearing their rose-colored "free market" conservative glasses, but it is the truth.

Mary Beth Maxwell today writes about one aspect of this effort - union-busting (and as she says, the problem is much worse than just union-busting). Thom Hartmann has spoken and written eloquently on the crucial role of unions in building and maintaining a middle class and he has played a large role in my own growing understanding of the issue. But the wealthy and powerful have managed to capitalize on the human failings of certain individuals involved in the union movement and used the union corruption cases to devastating effect in their effort to turn upright conservative citizens against the entire union movement - thereby unwittingly harming themselves. Having been anti-union nearly my entire life, including working for the break-the-unions political machine, I know whereof I speak.

Every middle-class conservative who sees their wages, health care, and retirement slowly slipping away really ought to be asking the same question that Maxwell asks:

Who’s willing to invest millions to undermine the right of teachers, nurses and other workers in America to earn a decent living and protect their interests in the workplace? The answer … reads like a page torn out of Christopher Buckley’s bestseller, Thank You for Smoking.

The over-the-top mudslinging by the Center for Union Facts, the National Right to Work Committee and other anti-union groups is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over our eyes, hiding the real crisis in the American workplace. Too many workers in the U.S. still can’t adequately provide basic necessities for their families, protect themselves from workplace hazards or take care of themselves when they get old or sick. The firings, intimidation and harassment that often befall workers attempting to exercise freedoms of speech and association by forming unions are threats to our democracy. …

The motives behind assailing organized workers are both financial and ideological. Union-busting is big business. Just ask Center for Union Facts founder and D.C. mercenary lobbyist Rick Berman. ...

But the assault on unions goes deeper than the dollar. It is bolstered by a long-standing conservative political objective to eradicate unions. Right-wingers know something the rest of us seem to have forgotten: Workers still want unions because they are a powerful deterrent to poverty and unfettered corporate greed.

The rich are getting richer and the middle class and poor are getting poorer. Bush's tax cuts almost exclusively help the rich and deprive funding for services for the poor. The real value of the minimum wage decreases every year. Fewer people can afford health care every year. And the very same group of individuals currently working to free the market up for Big Insurance and Big Pharma, eradicate the minimum wage, protect tax cuts for the wealthy, and drown government services in a bath tub, is engaged in a concerted effort to destroy Social Security so we will all have to pay them to manage our retirement savings plans for us. The reason for all of these efforts is simple: The social safety net, the rules that protect the middle class, and a regulated benefit system to protect everyday people prevent the wealthy and powerful from becoming even more wealthy and powerful. They don't like being told "no." And they're throwing a very successful and devious temper-tantrum in an effort to get to "yes" at the hands of their victims in the naïve and good-hearted middle class.

Progressives have known this for a long time. Conservatives, it would seem, don't have a clue. They're still heeding the ideological siren song of the Grover Norquists of the world.

Posted by Becky at October 25, 2006 11:05 AM